Taylor Dayne to entertain at Provincetown Beaux Arts Ball

Thursday

Oct 31, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 31, 2013 at 10:05 AM

It might be tempting to pull on a pair of yoga pants, sit back and be happy with one’s pop icon status, but that’s not Taylor Dayne’s style. She’s too creative and hungry as an artist. Dayne’s trajectory since “Tell It to My Heart,” “Love Will Lead You Back,” “Prove Your Love to Me” and many other of her hit songs that topped the charts in the ’80s has included a competition cooking show, a Broadway musical, a five-minute standing ovation at Gay Games VIII in Cologne, Germany and, most recently, the role of Grizabella, the Glamour Cat in the musical “Cats.”

Susan Blood

It might be tempting to pull on a pair of yoga pants, sit back and be happy with one’s pop icon status, but that’s not Taylor Dayne’s style. She’s too creative and hungry as an artist.

Dayne’s trajectory since “Tell It to My Heart,” “Love Will Lead You Back,” “Prove Your Love to Me” and many other of her hit songs that topped the charts in the ’80s has included a competition cooking show, a Broadway musical, a five-minute standing ovation at Gay Games VIII in Cologne, Germany and, most recently, the role of Grizabella, the Glamour Cat in the musical “Cats.”

Now she’s adding special guest start at Provincetown’s Beaux Arts Ball to her creds. The costume extravaganza takes place from 8 p.m. to midnight this Saturday, Nov. 2, in Provincetown Town Hall, and Dayne says she wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Dayne’s good friend Shawn Nightingale is producing the event in association with Bryan Rafanelli, a world-class event planner who also worked with Marc Jacobs in 2011 to bring this time-honored tradition back to town. Provincetown’s first Beaux Arts Ball was held in 1915 and the town kept throwing them well into the 1950s. 2011’s event raised more than $20,000 for the restoration of Town Hall auditorium. This year’s fête benefits Helping Our Women, The Provincetown Film Society and continuing the auditorium’s restoration.

“I love Shawn,” Dayne tells the Banner. “So of course I’ll be there.”

Since it’s a party, she says she’ll perform some “really fun, uptempo numbers and one to pull the strings of your heart.”

Dayne describes her career as going through a lot of hills and valleys. “I’ve never had one sure-fire way of doing anything,” she says. “I’m hungry to experience that feeling when you are alive, making new choices and being challenged.”

The best, she says, is always yet to be revealed. Her 2011 single, “Floor on Fire,” hit the Top 20 and she has expanded her vocal talents and stage presence with forays into theater and television. On Broadway, she played the role of Amneris in Elton John’s “Aida.” From there she did a cultural 360 and landed on “Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off,” where she was a celebrity guest chef in the television show’s first season.

Dayne has continued to diversify her career by saying yes to just about any project that comes her way. Earlier this summer, her appearance as Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Cats” played no small part in selling out the show’s run at the Finger Lakes Musical Theater Festival.

“I never say no to anything,” she said. “Especially now. If it’s viable and if it makes sense, I seem to thrive on that sh**.”

Some of the chaos she’s thriving on right now is a house remodel, which she’s filming. “You should see me right now,” she said. “I’ve got nine men putting up a chandelier. It’s too insane to not be on tape.”

She says it’s easy to fall “off the Yellow Brick Road,” and lose sight of the magic. “The magic for somebody like me is staying creative,” she says. “I was so inspired when I did the cooking show. It might look like I just did a competition show, but I can’t begin to tell you how hyper-focused I had to be and how challenged I had to be with all my resources. It’s the same creative energy as to write a song.”

Meanwhile, her ’80s icon status and television experience continue to serve her well. This past summer she was the guest judge of the “Cupcake Wars” season finale, where four bakers fought for the chance to serve their cupcakes at an ’80s-themed children’s birthday party that Dayne would throw.

She uses her big, passionate voice in other ways as well. Her primary charity is the Cambodian Children’s Fund, for which she helps raise money and through which she sponsors a child. She is also an advocate for the Dream Foundation, whose mission is to enhance the quality of life for adults and their families facing life-threatening illnesses by fulfilling final wishes.

As a single mother of 11-year-old twins Astaria and Levi, she says she can’t help but want to support women’s issues, and is glad the Beaux Arts Ball will honor women and children and families in the community through Helping Our Women.

Of her life and her career, Dayne says it’s all about the choices. “What’s the difference between greatness and mediocrity is the choices you see people make. The camera loves certain people. Other people, the camera loves because of their choices,” she says. “Experience gives you a lot backbone, but you have to have that place inside you.”